Seeing is Believing

The light was beginning to come to him in a haze of blues and whites. Fredrickâ€™s family stood by, smiling as they waited for him to sit up. The first thing he worried about was not knowing who was who.

â€œIâ€¦ can see.â€ Fredrick was lucky to have received such experimental treatment, and now it paid off. â€œMy eyesâ€¦ hurt, butâ€¦ everything is so, soâ€¦â€

A small girl to his right stood up and hugged him tightly. â€œBright, Daddy! Itâ€™s all bright!â€

She could have been saying it was all right, but Fredrick knew the meaning of the word and he knew that this was his daughter Rosetta. He hugged her back as the Doctors came in to tell him the results. He could barely hear them over the colors and shapes of the room. â€œâ€¦a new vision thanks to sight based on…â€

His wife was pulled aside by the doctors, and Fredrick glanced down at his little girl. Rosetta was eight years old and cute as a button. Her father had imagined her to be somewhat different, but in this initial excitement he had forgotten to care. She still clung to him as if he was going to leave, but he had no plans to go anytime soon.

â€œThe side effects have been, well, different in a few subjects, Mrs. Calter. Weâ€™ve seen some come out just fine, but others have hallucinations or become psychotic.â€ Mrs. Calter didnâ€™t look happy, but how could she not be somewhat pleased at the results? She nodded to the legally-required banter about the side effects as Fredrick smiled over at her.

Just then, a little gray being walked by. Fredrick was still in awe of his surroundings, but his face changed when huge, black opal eyes turned on him and the creatureâ€™s head tilted in an almost curious manner. No one else seemed to be reacting, and all Fredrick could do was stammer nonsense in a whispered tone. He pointed and looked around, surprised that no one else was paying attention.

After the being had examined Fredrick, it started to move over to his daughter, sliding some sort of device from a metallic knapsack. The needle-end of the device was pointed at the back of her neck, and the creature moved around the bed and towards her body as if nothing could get in its way.

By now, Fredrick was screaming bloody murder and yelling at the doctors. They glanced over to him, seeing him point into the nothingness behind his daughter who stepped back from the bed. â€œGet that thing away from my daughter! Itâ€™s going toâ€¦ oh, God! Get that out of her neck!â€

He struggled to get out of bed as one of the doctors hit a speaker panel on the wall and spoke into it urgently, â€œCode 9Z, Code 9Z in the recovery wing.â€ The rest of the staff watched Mr. Calter thrust his fist into the air behind his obviously distressed daughter. The girl was crying and screaming as loudly as Fredrick, who was the only one staring into the black void-like eyes of this creature who had taken a sample of something from the back of Rosettaâ€™s neck. Fredrickâ€™s fists did nothing aside from make shimmers and small waves in its form.

As he was injected with sedatives, Fredrick glanced around at his human attackers. His eyes glazed and the world began to spin. When Mr. Calter was unconscious, they put him in the bed and strapped him down. The creature that had taken a vial of blue fluid from Rosetta Calter jotted down some notes before walking through a wall. The note read: â€œChange our frequencyâ€.